Stupid Guest Tricks

ktulu wrote:So, you're a lawyer and not a mathematician. Let me do that for you, 3+1=4.

Reminds me of a joke...

A prestigious university wants to study the nature of math. First they ask a mathematician, “What’s 2+2?” The mathematician immediately replies, “4.” Next, they ask an economist the same question. The economist thinks for a moment and replies, “Well, out of context it can be difficult to determine with any great accuracy, but making some assumptions based on normally prevailing conditions, I would be fairly confident that the answer would lie somewhere between 3 and 5.” Finally, they ask a lawyer. The lawyer stands, draws the blinds, comes back, leans close, and says in a quiet voice, “What do you need it to be?”

:D:

Reminds me of the lecture I used to give on accumulating tolerances. I wrote on the board, "2 + 2 = 5, for large values of '2'."

I explained that if the value of "2" was actually 2.4, it would still be rounded to 2. But if you added them together, their total would be 4.8, which rounds to 5.

The lecture served two purposes: first, to tell the smart half of the class to be aware of hidden digits; second, to let me know who the dumb half of the class was (those who "Just didn' get it) so I could encourage them to change majors.

And that reminds me of when I worked on school administrative software, including a grading module. The module did report cards and produced a class ranking. The grades were entered as whole numbers, but the class ranking was carried out to 2 places past the decimal.

We had a school come to us insisting that we go to 4 places beyond the decimal becuase they had a tie in the top ten.

I said, "Flip a coin, it will be just as fair."

*blank stare*

"The result of a mathematical equation can be no more accurate than the least accurate value in its formation."

*blank stare*

"You're averaging whole numbers, so even the two digits we're giving you aren't accurate. Four would be even worse."

"But we have a tie. We can't have a tie."

"But there's no way the numbers can tell you anything accurately."

*blank stare*



We gave them a custom version of the report that went to 4 decimal places.

Zazu wrote:Reminds me of the lecture I used to give on accumulating tolerances. I wrote on the board, "2 + 2 = 5, for large values of '2'."...

And for large values of 1, 1 approaches 2, for small values of 2. :D:

ktulu wrote: I love these impromptu mini vacations!

We do too ktulu. I feel like we were The Winners!! :) Don't forget outer wear next time. Just cuz you don't get cold..... :D: Your Legacy wisdom was AMAZING! How do you come up with practically perfect in everyway all the time?